Understanding Brits - A Post-Political Analysis

Soumis par Aggregation le ven, 05/19/2017 - 06:32

By Gilad AtzmonShareThe current election has made understanding Brits pretty easy.
Yesterday The Daily Telegraph published some statistics that suggest that Brits are just ordinary people, not much different from the Americans or the French - they are born communists but die hard-core conservatives.The above data suggest that British youngsters overwhelmingly supportCorbyn’s dream. But this changes once they hit political puberty which is apparently around the age of 25. Adults seem to run away from Labour and Corbyn.Why are the Tories leading with each age group over 25?While youngsters are happy to share other people’s possessions, grownups are reluctant to share the little they have. People become more greedy and possessive of what they have managed to accumulate, however small, as they get older. This tendency is not a ‘British’symptom, it is actually embedded in the human condition.There is also another reason behind Corbyn unpopularity amongst grownups. Adults understand that politicians’ promises mean little and they are always attached to a tax bill..Corbyn has been astonishingly successful in energizing young support. Theresa May, on the other hand, understands that it is the homeowners, the workers and especially the elders that she has to communicate with. As a calculated populist, she promises to be tough on immigration and protect possessions. Seemingly, this is what most Brits care about. The outcome should be devastating for the British Left. In Britain, the Labour Party is primarily a juvenile adventure. The ‘party of the workers’ is led by a person who has not worked a single day in his life (I mean a proper job). People who do not work are often detached from the human experience. Whether or not we like to admit it, Corbyn is paying for his detachment. Despite his genuine appealing message about a country that delivers “for the many, not the few”, he has somehow failed to buy the necessary trust to make his candidacy a meaningful political event. This is indeed painful to watch. As the statistics above show, the older Brits get, the less they trust Corbyn and the Labour party. Labour enthusiasts may tell us that youngsters and sensible people support Corbyn because they dream of a new future, a prospect of change. This is probably true. However, the elder Brits do not support Labour because they have a memory- they just do not trust ‘socialists.’ The Workless ClassIf Labour once dominated the worker’s vote, this is clearly not the case anymore.
As the above statistics reveal, even the workers do not trust ‘their’ party.In contrast, Theresa May has managed to buy herself the name of ‘Red Tory’ by saying she wants the Conservative party to be the "voice of ordinary working people once again." The statistics above suggest that many members of the British working class seem to buy into May’s populism. Again, not surprising. The Americans and the French have fallen into the same trap.Why do the working people prefer to believe bankers, mammonites, and Tories rather than their ‘own’ union leaders? Probably because they are working people rather than Guardian readers. The working people are dependent upon production, trade and manufacturing. They know that it is the capitalists, the bankers and the mammonites and not the union leaders who put bread and butter on their tables. This is why they vote for Trump, Macron and May. The tragedy is that Trump is not going to make America great again. Macron didn’t even intend to make France great and May will forget she was once a ‘Red Tory’ by the early hours of June 9th.To pre-order Being in Time- A Post Political Manifesto: Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.comThe book is now available on this site